Storybench - Exploring data and digital storytelling. Northeastern's School of Journalism

AI Round-ups

Summer AI + journalism updates: how automation is reshaping news routines

by Rahul Bhargava, Peiyao Hu, Vivica D'souza

Tutorials

Try this tool to map protests for local news

by Rahul Bhargava

Behind the Scenes Interviews Q&As

No box to check: How Sarah Almukhtar and The New York Times used visual storytelling to break down the Census definition of “White”

by Suyu Chen

The

Behind the Scenes Round-ups Tools Tutorials

NICAR 2025: New data journalism tools you can use right now

by Peiyao Hu

The

Behind the Scenes Interviews Q&As

Taking the risk: How wildlife photographer Martin Gregus captures powerful conservation stories to inspire change

by Marian Siljeholm

He’s

Round-ups

Federal data is disappearing. Meet the teams rescuing it

by Ruchika Erravandla

Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News

Eight years post NBC breakup: How 7News “makes you wanna watch”

by Aiden Stein

Since

Behind the Scenes Interviews Q&As

“You have to give something of yourself”: The New York Times’ James Estrin on finding shared humanity through photography

by Marian Siljeholm

What

Behind the Scenes Interviews Q&As

Your city, but hotter: How Derek Taylor and The Pudding used visualizations to recontextualize the story of climate change

by Darin Zullo

What

Behind the Scenes Features Reinventing Local TV News

From print to reels: How student journalists are crafting news for the digital age

by Lila Hempel-Edgers

AI Behind the Scenes Round-ups

February updates in AI and journalism: Continuing legal tensions, newsroom experiments and emerging collaboration

by Rahul Bhargava and Vivica D'souza

From

Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News

How to be a creative visual storyteller with video journalist Forrest Sanders

by Abigayle Cooper

Forrest

Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News

How WCVB’s OTT Content Producer Leanna Scachetti is Transforming Local TV News for Digital Audiences

by Katherine Pinnock

Behind the Scenes Q&As

Slurp on this: What Axios’ Soup Dumpling Index tells us about AI in the newsroom

by Meera Chaddha

The

Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News

WCBS New York’s Digital Content Creator Maggie Cole on laying the path for a new role

by Annah Chaya

Local

Behind the Scenes Q&As

The Marshall Project’s Aaron Sankin on AI, large data sets and contextualizing data stories in the real world

by Dakota Castro-Jarrett

We’re

AI Round-ups

Winter AI + journalism updates: Is AI breaking boundaries or breaking rules?

by Rahul Bhargava, Peiyao Hu, Vivica D'souza

Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News

Streaming Content Producer Angela Chen on reinventing local TV news for the streaming generation at ABC7 Chicago

by Heidi Ho

Northeastern

Behind the Scenes

How The New York Times used space and sound to revive Notre Dame after the fire

by Amanda Logcher

Imagine

Behind the Scenes Q&As

Through Lynn Johnson’s Lens: Visual Storytelling, National Geographic and the Future of Long-Form Photojournalism

by Marian Siljeholm

Lynn

Behind the Scenes Features Q&As Research

Transforming journalism with data and AI: Research on representation, equity and accountability in news from the 2024 Computation + Journalism Symposium

by Heidi Ho

Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News

“Wrestling with the past”: How Chris Dalla Riva uncovered the deeper story in Rolling Stones’ GOAT music album rankings

by Anna Palfy

Behind the Scenes Q&As

“Not just broadcast:” WBUR CEO Margaret Low on the future of the business of news

by Heidi Ho

Since

Behind the Scenes Q&As

What Works: A new approach to local news research

by Jeta Perjuci

Podcasts,

AI Tutorials

Using AI agents and R to create map annotations

by Matt Waite

Let’s

Tutorials

How to create an interactive dashboard in Mapbox

by Elijah Nicholson-Messmer

Tutorials

Creating mind-bending animation with Apple’s free Keynote app

by Martin Gee

Yup,

Reinventing Local TV News

How Grist uses scrollytelling in its story on stolen Indigenous land to engage with its audience

by Katrina Makayan

Scrollytelling

Round-ups

The war in Gaza one year later: how open source investigations have helped reveal the costs of war

by Dan Zedek

This

Research

Same words, different meanings: we analyzed the text of the Walz-Vance debate. Here’s what we found.

by April Qian

For

Data Journalism in R Tutorials

Turning your small-multiple charts into maps using R

by Ryan Hafen

The geofacet R package provides a way to flexibly visualize data for different geographical regions, combining multiple small charts into a map.

Tutorials

A step-by-step guide: visualizing organic carbon in near real time

by Marco Hernandez

Hernandez

Behind the Scenes Q&As

“AI is transforming music faster than we think.” The Washington Post’s Yan Wu explores the intersection of AI and creativity.

by Namira Haris

Research

Decoding the Debate: Analyzing the text of the Harris-Trump Face-off

by April Qian

From

Tutorials

How I scraped and visualized over 1,500 NPR Tiny Desk concerts

by Elijah Nicholson-Messmer

The

AI Round-ups

Your Early Fall AI+Journalism Updates

by Rahul Bhargava

Welcome

Tutorials

Visualizing the destruction in Ukraine: A years-long project following satellite clues

by Marco Hernandez

Hernandez

Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News

“The news has a boring problem”: Sean McLaughlin has big ideas to save TV news

by Kate Deskey

Tired

Behind the Scenes Q&As

Finding humanity: How Josh Neufeld uses comics journalism to form empathic connections

by Lily Xu

What

Behind the Scenes Q&As

Here are Nathan Griffiths’ takeaways from his career journey experimenting with different mediums

by Pavithra Rajesh and Kelly Chan

Nathan

Behind the Scenes Q&As

“Useful, beautiful and innovative.” How the Washington Post’s Harry Stevens reaches high engagement on climate and environment reporting

by Nikkia Jean Charles

There’s

Behind the Scenes Features

Breaking a New Dawn: Investigative Journalist Chai Jing’s New Chapter

by Storybench Team

Reinventing Local TV News

Learning from TikTok: Lessons for TV News in How #BookTok Broke Big on Social Media

by Olivia Chislett

Growing

AI Round-ups

New Strategies for Using Artificial Intelligence in Journalism

by Rahul Bhargava

Here’s

Behind the Scenes Q&As

The Marshall Project’s Innovative Look At Death Penalty Mitigation Specialists

by Ananya Kulkarni

Behind the Scenes Features

How one photojournalist is documenting sexual assault in the U.S. military

by Colette Pollauf

Mary

Behind the Scenes Features Interviews Reinventing Local TV News

How Vox uses animation to make complicated topics digestible for everyone

by Heidi Ho

With

Round-ups Tools

35+ data visualization tools that The Washington Post uses

by Heather Wang

The

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How Hidden Brain Media shares short-form serendipitous stories

by Alyssa Fell

When

AI Behind the Scenes Features Tools Tutorials

I Used ChatGPT as a Reporting Assistant. It Didn’t Go Well

by The Markup

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How The Pudding analyzed the “diva-ness” of national anthem performances

by Anna Palfy

Performing

Tools Tutorials

Using R and Media Cloud to do sentiment analysis

by Benjamin ZH Tan

Sentiment

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How The New York Times uncovered and visualized the dangers faced by child influencers

by Isabel Meyers

Content

AI Tutorials

How can AI help us study the news? Here are my experiments with LLM-based query generation.

by Rahul Bhargava

Behind the Scenes Q&As

ProPublica remembers children lost to stillbirth through interactive memorial

by Anna Palfy

Every

Behind the Scenes Features

Take a look inside Reuters’ investigative report on death of colleague Issam Abdallah during Israel-Hamas war

by Ruchika Erravandla

AI Round-ups

Spring updates on artificial intelligence and journalism

by Rahul Bhargava

Here’s

Behind the Scenes Q&As

Meet the founder: The B-Side’s Andrew Grillo on knowing your audience

by Heidi Ho

Emojis.

Behind the Scenes Exploring Climate Q&As

The Shore Line Project turns the tide on environmental discourse

by Sabira Khalili

Shorelines

Behind the Scenes Q&As

Kontinentalist shows the legal battle for women’s divorce rights in the Philippines with visual and data storytelling

by Heather Wang

Behind the Scenes Features Reinventing Local TV News Research

Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project kicks off a year of experimentation

by Anna Campbell

Northeastern

Tools Tutorials

How the Urban Institute democratizes access to education data

by Erika Tyagi

Debates

AI Behind the Scenes Features Tools

Reuters: Journalism and technology trends and predictions

by Heather Wang

News

Behind the Scenes Q&As

Here’s a look inside the data team at the Associated Press

by Pavithra Rajesh and Kelly Chan

Founded

Data Journalism in R Reinventing Local TV News Tutorials

Getting started with stringr for textual analysis in R

by Martin Frigaard

Manipulating

Behind the Scenes Features

Step by step: Exploring the sneaker lifecycle through data physicalization

by April Qian

Laces.

AI Behind the Scenes Features

Chris Perry explores the impact of AI on future media

by Heather Wang

What

AI Behind the Scenes Features

How OpenAI is changing the way we process information

by Heather Wang

“Is

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How Brian Romer approaches data visualizations

by Christina McCabe

With

AI Round-ups

Your start of the year updates on artificial intelligence in journalism are here

by Rahul Bhargava

This

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How ProPublica’s Craig Silverman uncovers Big Tech deceptions

by Sarah Mesdjian

The

Behind the Scenes Q&As

Island17: How a college student made a gamified metaverse to explore diversity, equity and inclusion

by Chloe Colipano

Island17

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How this former public school teacher helped uncover education inequities for The Boston Globe

by Olivia Leo

Mandy

Behind the Scenes Q&As

What Works: How Dan Kennedy and Ellen Clegg offer solutions to the local news crisis

by Sophie Quisenberry

Round-ups Tools Tutorials

These tools will take your data to a new level — or decibel

by Jade Khatib

Behind the Scenes Q&As

Unraveling beer’s evolution with The Washington Post

by Nayla Moawad

Behind the Scenes Features Reinventing Local TV News

Why TV executives should listen to their interns

by Gigi Barnett

Internships

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How The Pudding visualized the evolution of “wonky” grooves

by Naomi Barrant

Have

Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News

How an intern’s “Dadaist” economic skits took over NPR’s TikTok

by Elijah Nicholson-Messmer

Legacy

Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News

From radio to TikTok: How Matt Shearer has transformed WBZ’s coverage

by Michael Earls

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How CNN’s guide visualized real-world impacts of a government shutdown

by Annah Chaya

The

Behind the Scenes Q&As Reinventing Local TV News Tutorials

‘Reeling’ in your audience: Emily Schario discusses The B-Side’s social media strategy

by Olivia Becraft and Clara McCourt

The

Behind the Scenes Q&As

Unearthing the devastating earthquake strikes in Morocco

by Yinghao An

The

Election Tracker Q&As

How The Washington Post visualized the Republican primary debates

by Matty Wasserman

From

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How The New York Times visualized the decline of clinics offering abortions after Dobbs

by Lina Petronino

When

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How podcasting helped these social media influencers expand their brand

by Alexis Zacharakos

Influencer

Behind the Scenes Q&As

The Boston Globe opinion section showed what it’s like to be a teenager today using essays, poems and art

by Kristina DaPonte

It’s

Behind the Scenes Q&As

The host of ‘Java with Jimmy’ on how a quarantine hobby became a community-based career

by Sarah Pyrce

Behind the Scenes Interviews Q&As

How Qing Wang connects her podcast ‘The Weirdo’ to a young Chinese audience

by Heidi Ho

The

Data Journalism in R Tutorials

How to use R to analyze racial profiling at police stops

by Lucia Walinchus

Working

Round-ups

What’s a college worth to you? These data sources go beyond the rankings.

by Mitali Sarin

College

Behind the Scenes Q&As

The song remains the same: How The Pudding used data to uncover sexism in the music industry

by Isabel Baron

The

Tools Tutorials

How to begin making your data visualizations more accessible to people with disabilities

by Patrick Garvin

How

Round-ups

Mapbreaking: Why cartographic flaws can sometimes be a good thing

by Brian Romer

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How a local nonprofit news organization found its readers on TikTok

by Delaney Murray

You

Tools Tutorials

How to scrape a table from a website with Python

by Ziyu Peng

Getting

Election Tracker Round-ups

5 ways news organizations are visualizing election data

by Sarah Klute

Believe

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How animated data visualizations helped the Economic Innovation Group explain the impact of skilled immigration

by Pavithra Rajesh

How

Data Journalism in R Election Tracker Tutorials

How to analyze the screen times of presidential candidates

by Jade Khatib

Who

Behind the Scenes Interviews Q&As

How CNN’s foreign correspondent Clarissa Ward uses remote technology and local connections to report abroad

by Giovanni Falco

When

Behind the Scenes Interviews Q&As

How analytics are driving decisions at The Boston Globe

by Emma Klekotka

AI Behind the Scenes Features

Technology companies and journalists must build public trust of AI together, experts say

by Heather Wang

“Can

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How The Washington Post turned a year-long investigation into a graphic novel

by Matt Yan

AI Round-ups

Here are the updates you need on artificial intelligence in journalism

by Rahul Bhargava

We’re

Tutorials

How to build a map-based guessing game using React and MapBox

by Ben Muschol

Introduction

Behind the Scenes Features Tools

How The Washington Post uncovered the sources that make AI chatbots sound so smart

by Szu Yu Chen and Kevin Schaul

How

Tutorials

How do you use the Census API to pinpoint data?

by Evan Galloway

This

Behind the Scenes Interviews Q&As

Opioid pill flood: How The Washington Post presents the American drug crisis

by Heather Wang

The

Tutorials

Myth: ARIA has perfect support

by Eric Bailey

This

Behind the Scenes Q&As

How Alex Lim visualized the colors of Singapore for The Straits Times

by Pavithra Rajesh and Kelly Chan

How

Tutorials

How to get census data in 5 minutes using R and tidycensus

by Thomas Gomes

This

Behind the Scenes Features

How Nature visualized the impact of overturning Roe v. Wade

by Saima Sidik

The

Data Journalism in R Tutorials

How to use R to dig for story ideas

by Manyun Zou

Many

AI Round-ups

Here are the latest updates on artificial intelligence in journalism

by Rahul Bhargava

Behind the Scenes Features

How Alvin Chang designs visualizations for everyone

by Emily Niedermeyer

“How

Tutorials

How to clean data with OpenRefine

by Shuang Jing

Behind the Scenes Interviews Q&As

Smoke, fires, floods: How John Keefe and The New York Times use data to explain extreme weather events

by Pavithra Rajesh and Kelly Chan

With

Behind the Scenes Interviews

How the New York Times visualized the mental struggles Olympians face against fear

by Lauren Thomas

There’s

Behind the Scenes

How Aaron Williams visualizes his own story to talk about economic mobility

by Ella Witt

The

Behind the Scenes

How fitness creator Alyssa Pannozzi became a social media trailblazer

by Simran Anand

Alyssa

Behind the Scenes

How FiveThirtyEight covered the daylight savings discussion

by Kate Deskey

Behind the Scenes

Adam Davidson talks Mastodon, @Journa.Host, and content moderation

by Sydney Steinberg

You

Behind the Scenes

How Laura Morel is helping to uncover the truth behind anti-abortion pregnancy centers

by Emma Katko

Women

Behind the Scenes

Journalist Lindsey Metrus shares her journey with generalized anxiety disorder

by Gianna Mastrion

Behind the Scenes

Beyond hashtags: A behind the scenes look at ByHolguin

by Antonia Sousa

Gone

Behind the Scenes

Santiago Arau Pontones’ bird’s eye view: On evoking Mexico’s femicides and the art of emotion

by ana sanchez

Behind the Scenes

Influencer marketing 101: Collaborations, seamless product placement, and authentic narrative

by Paige Keeler

Have

Insights

Liza Donnelly on the power of cartoons

by Julia Laquerre

People

Behind the Scenes

Michala Sabnani: The media executive behind Equanimity Podcast and the innovations of South China Morning Post’s Morning Studio

by Riana mahtani

Michala

Behind the Scenes

From radio to TikTok, WBZ News’ Matt Shearer is redefining local news

by Eamonn Ryan

There’s

Behind the Scenes

How the duo behind @twotastebuddiez uses social media to connect with their followers and offer them a seat at the dinner table

by Gigi Barnett

Big

Insights

Data journalism? You can do it.

by Rahul Bhargava

Data

Research

Digital Storytelling to Support Connective Journalism

by Rahul Bhargava

Journalism

Reinventing Local TV News

Interested in doing graduate work in video innovation? Apply now for a Video Innovation Scholarship in Fall 2023!

by Mike Beaudet

For

Exploring Climate

How Felippe Rodrigues at New Zealand’s Stuff brought to life a chart of Earth’s changing temperature

by Emma Magioncalda

Behind the Scenes

How the Marshall Project dug into the FBI’s new crime statistics collection program

by Bridget Bost

The

Behind the Scenes

Breaking down “The Big Bang Theory,” Chinese censorship, and data journalism with Manyun Zou

by Miska Salemann

Growing

Exploring Climate

Scrollytelling innovation: New York Times journalists on climate change, visualization, and intense teamwork

by Annetta Stogniew

Behind the Scenes

Vox Atlas: Producer Sam Ellis on his distinctive map animations

by Zoe Baumgartner

Behind the Scenes

How the Marshall Project presented the thriving underground economy behind bars

by Matteo Farah

Beth

Behind the Scenes

Founder of The Pudding and Polygraph, Matt Daniels, on the shift in content consumption and digital storytelling

by Pasit Lerkkumsup

Consumer

Behind the Scenes

A stunning multimedia lens on mass incarceration and its aftermath: The story behind “Facing Life”

by Stella Westlake

After

Behind the Scenes

How Marco Hernandez visualized humanity’s plastic waste problem — and changed the way we think about pollution

by Laurel Booth

Around

Behind the Scenes

USA TODAY’s coverage of the 2022 midterms and polarized language on Twitter

by Casey Cormier

How

Insights

Vox’s Emily Stewart on the necessity of financial literacy: ‘Money is the most important thing’

by Sarah Barber

The

Behind the Scenes Insights

How The Washington Post’s Angel Mendoza uses Reddit to seek out new audiences

by Matt Yan

When

Insights

Storytelling + STEM!: Northeastern’s new Master of Science (M.S.) in Media Innovation & Data Communication

by John Wihbey

For

Tutorials

Finding Embedded Tweets in Online News with Python

by Rahul Bhargava and Dina Zemlyanker

Seeing

Data Journalism in R Insights Tutorials

Update: How to geocode a CSV of addresses in R

by Martin Frigaard

This

Insights

The power of play: Why journalists should warm up to newsgames

by Cody Mello-Klein

For

Research

Nine projects that came out of Northeastern’s Media Innovation program this year

by Aleszu Bajak

Before

Interviews

Upworthy’s Eli Pariser: “I’m the proudest when our stories change the way people see the world”

by Felippe Rodrigues

Eli

Insights

Why understanding what it truly means to be digital is critical for long-term success

by David Skok

The

Research

Six data stories about Boston from Northeastern’s Urban Tensions hackathon

by Rowan Walrath

All

Insights

Digital transformation means focusing on readers, not platforms.

by David Skok

Insights SXSW

SXSW: From prototyping to editing, VR tips from the filmmakers

by Felippe Rodrigues and Rachel Grozanick

Storybench flew

Interviews SXSW

Meet the Swedish newspaper editor who put an algorithm in charge of his homepage

by Felippe Rodrigues

About

Behind the Scenes

How the L.A. Times mapped new buildings near freeways to highlight health risks

by Aleszu Bajak

Behind the Scenes

How the Wall Street Journal visualized the 500+ conflicts of interest of The Trumps

by Yan Wu

The

Insights

Using data from books to measure cultural evolution: A primer on Google’s Ngram viewer

by Julianna Longo

Books

Insights Research

One computer scientist’s strategies for improving network visualizations

by Yan Wu

Insights

Games journalism: How to turn your passion into a writing career

by Cody Mello-Klein

Behind the Scenes Exploring Climate

How a New York Times graphics editor designed “Greenland is Melting Away”

by Isabelle Truong

Insights Research

Accelerating knowledge: Four takeaways from an IBM data visualization expert

by Felippe Rodrigues

Northeastern

Insights

Using animation to protect sources while telling true stories of gay life in China

by Yan Wu

The

Insights Research

Tips on data visualization from the Broad Institute’s Bang Wong

by Aleszu Bajak

Last

Interviews

The importance of listening to your audience

by Lauren Landry

When

Insights Research

How Northeastern design students are reimagining public transportation and the experience of “waiting”

by Aleszu Bajak

Could

Round-ups

Five chatbots created by newsrooms in 2016 that we liked

by Maria Crosas

Behind the Scenes Research

Using data and design to compare corruption and transparency across 50 U.S. states

by Aleszu Bajak

With

Interviews

How the NYT’s John Herrman pulled back the curtain on fake news

by Andy Robinson

John

Behind the Scenes

How Tim Meko visualized America’s vast web of pipelines, railroads, electricity and more.

by Aleszu Bajak

Tim

Round-ups

Contextualizing the Dakota Access Pipeline: A roundup of visualizations

by Aleszu Bajak

Since

Insights Interviews

Upworthy’s Amy O’Leary on the art and data science of engaging readers

by Dina Kraft

Amy

Behind the Scenes

How the Guardian used pixel art mini Trumps, Bernies and other candidates to display election results

by Aleszu Bajak

During

Behind the Scenes

How the Wall Street Journal visualized the issues that split the Republican vote

by Aleszu Bajak

To help

Behind the Scenes

How a small data design company visualized the world’s scientific collaborations

by Sage Wesenberg

Cuban

Insights

A dummy’s guide to mapping Daesh

by Dietmar Offenhuber

Dietmar

Insights Research

Understanding what makes a visualization memorable

by John Wihbey

John

Tutorials

How to learn responsive web design by coding your own story

by Aleszu Bajak

Say

Tools

How newspaper stories went viral in the 19th century

by Aleszu Bajak

Ryan